Review Detail of Kergonan in Mystical Journey

The first novel I read on Webnovel, and the reason I initially came here was « The Wizard World » by Get Lost, which I really liked although it was not the best novel I enjoyed. So after a few years, I decided to give Mystical Journey, by the the same author, a try as I was attracted by the original setting. So how did it go ? The setting is quite peculiar here as it is plural. The main character is a transmigrator who travels from one universe to another (about half a dozen) as the novel moves forward. Each world has its own flavour, nations, factions and power system. Most are in a time period that goes from the late 19th century to the early 21th century, except for two, one which is a futuristic space opera/mecha setting and another which is a european medieval-fantasy setting (with heavy inspiration, I even dare say plagiarism from Dungeons & Dragons, especially Forgotten Realms and Planescape). They are good, but not great, as the regular switching from one world to another (mostly without coming back) makes it hard to grow attached to one setting and truly explore its depth. The same could be said for most of the characters, as they almost always restricted to a given universe, and are functional, except for a some of them with a few quirks (not always well written). As a result, you have hard time to connect to them, especially as the story goes on, just like the main character. Garen, as a protagonist, is not much of a hero, more an anti-hero.It is driven, careful, observant, but ultimately self-centered, except for the few character he feels indebted to. In fact, as the novel progresses, he grows more and more callous, detached from humanity, and while not sadistic, will casually kill any number of beings (human or others) if it serves his goals. By the way, his goals remain mostly selfish and vague during the whole tale, beside the quest for power and survival (sometimes in the latter parts, even the MC wonders about what makes him carry on, and can’t come with a satisfactory answer). I can sum him up as a cold, intelligent but undriven and unlikeable opportunist. With such a protagonist, it is hardly surprising that the story starts to grow stale form the mid-point. Each transmigration into a new world is maked by an early period of weakness, then a growth in power according to the rules of the setting, with Garen being primarily motivated by survival and not much else. Even if each world has its own secrets and plot, the cycle ends up being repetitive, and even if there is a multiverse plot centred around an ancient multidimensional civilization whose powers the protagonist tries to make his, it is not exploited as it should. In fact, the feeling of detachement brought by the main character gets so intense in the latter arc that you end up looking at him as a secondary character in the great scheme of thing, a passing journeyman. Add to this an abrupt and frustrating ending, and you’ll feel a bit little you’ve wasted your time. For the power system, well, each unverse visited has its own, sometimes multiple of them, with characteristics relevant to the world’s plot. Some lessons learned in a given universe can be used in others and there are a number of trans-universal systems, one of them used by the MC and which drives a part of the novel’s plot (that plus him own unique « cheat »). Sadly, as the tale progresses, the systems get less and less grounded. The translation is average, mostly correct, but sadly with a significant number of typos, mistranslations of homophones, changes of names from one chapter to another … It is still readable, but it can make the experience upsetting. The translator truly has room for improvements. In conlusion, with a varied but depth lacking setting, barebone character, defective protagonist and sometimes enjoyabe but ultimately repetitive and stale story with a frustrating ending, I can say that this Mystical Journey lead me to nowhere. My final verdict for this very average nove lis a 4 out of 10, a 5 in the translation is ever corrected, and I doubt it will. The Wizard World, also by Get Lost is much better. In any case, i twill be some time before I read another novel of his. Kergonan out. P.S : thanks to Get Lost for writing this novel. For EndlessFantasy Translation, thank you but you need to improve.